Inevitable
by MikaelaLovesMusic
Summary: Finally, Casey asks Sammy out. What does Heather do as revenge? And is Casey's and Sammy's relationship as strong as it seems? Finally: The big showdown between Heather and Sammy. It gets vicious, but see how Sammy does it! Now Complete!
1. Two Inevitable Things Happen

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sammy Keyes or any of the characters in the story except for Carrie Stevens.**

I, Sammy Keyes, have been in a lot of scary situations before. I'm talking about ones where I wasn't even sure if I was going to make it out of there with my body completely intact, you know?

And now that I think about it, those problems were _nothing_ compared to what I was about to face now.

It was none other than my evil red-haired, phony archenemy.

Heather Acosta.

It all started in seventh grade, and as much as I'd like to believe they didn't, things went _wayyyy_ downhill after that.

It got even worse when things just started to click between me and her amazing, wonderful, awesome brother, (sorry, I got a little carried away there) Casey. For some reason, Heather's main goal in life is to make _my_ life suck. She's always trying to make me feel alone and whatever. So, of course, she was completely fuming mad when she realized that I had the possibility of hooking up with her own brother. And, like the predator she is, she saw this as an attack at her and made my life even more miserable than I thought any human being was capable of!

I mean, she spread a rumor that Casey and I _slept_ with each other. If she's not evil, then I don't know what evil is!

But the big trouble started just last night when Casey and I went to the movies. It was a few days after we had sent those two condors we rescued into the wild. We were both bored to death. Billy had gone with his parents on a vacation to Europe or something, Casey had said and Marissa was on a business trip with her parents so she could "learn the industry." (I cracked up when I heard about it.)

So Casey suggested we go watch this action movie he heard about this guy who got these superhuman powers. I had heard about it to, and I was all up for watching it with him, even though I knew it would be a little awkward since it was just the two of us.

The movie ended earlier than I thought it would, so we went to dinner at the local burger joint. Not my idea of a romantic venue, but anywhere that Casey is was good enough for me.

We joked around the whole time, but I could tell he was holding back on something.

"I need to tell you something," he finally said, looking at the floor. He was wringing his hands.

"What is it, Case? Finally agree that I'm a way better skateboarder than you?" I teased.

"No, um, it's something else."

I was taken aback by his reply. Usually when I teased him about something like our skateboarding skills, he's quick to defend and retort.

"Ok," was my simple reply. If he had something serious to say, I didn't want to make it more complicated for him.

"Ok, here it goes." he breathed deeply. He turned to face me. I almost melted in his chocolaty eyes. I had known him for a year and a half already, but I still couldn't get used to the way they always took my breath away. "Sammy, I've liked you ever since the day I met you. Will you be my girlfriend?"

And, like the moron I was, I just sat there, speechless. Be his girlfriend? Of course! His eyes started getting doubtful so, displaying my moronic qualities once more, I sputtered out a yes.

A smile went to his face and his eyes twinkled. _He is so cute,_ I thought.

His face came even closer, and suddenly I knew what was going to happen. He pressed his lips to mine tenderly. My heart was racing out of control, but all I could focus on was the beautiful angel I was kissing right in the middle of that empty, grimy burger joint. Warmth flowed through my body. He broke the kiss and led me out to the street. The city had put up Christmasy lights to celebrate the summer season. He pressed his lips to mine once more, then to my cheek, then back to my lips. I have never been a girly girl. Never. But then I found myself doing the girliest thing ever. I wrapped my arms around his waist and he put his around my neck. Our lips began to move and it was _wonderful._

When I walked back home that night, guess who I was _sooo_ lucky to run into? None other than the queen of mean herself and her wannabe followers, Tenille and Monet. Apparently word travels fast around Santa Martina and they _already _knew about Casey and I.

"Listen, loser, and listen good," was her friendly greeting.

"Nice to see you too, Heather," I growled, sarcasm dripping from my voice. She brought her face closer to mine in a snarl.

"I know what you're trying to do. If you think hooking up with my own brother is a good enough revenge on me, then your _wrong_. And you will pay for this. Oh, and don't think your so goody-goody now that your with him. Casey's a pathetic loser. You both are."

"Stop breathing my air, Heather. Swine flu is going around and I don't want to take any chances."

With a huff, she pushed me roughly towards the road. I blocked her attempt, grabbed both of her wrists, pressed them down, and threw them to the side. I was done fighting with her. I simply walked away, leaving a fuming Heather.

So that day, two inevitable things happened.

1.) Casey Acosta asked me out.

2.) Heather Acosta was out to ruin my life.

Oh, joy.

**How was that? Please review! Flames accepted!**


	2. I Get Surprised

The weird thing is that nothing really happened right after that. In fact, the next few weeks were the best of my life. I tried really hard to forget about Heather and her stupid revenge, but deep down inside?

I was _scared_.

And I was getting a little antsy. Casey had been acting really weird lately. Like yesterday, we were hanging out at the mall and all of a sudden he had to leave. Like he had somewhere better to be. He tried to hide it, but I saw through it. _Weird._

But the good part was that Grams got a new computer. She let me set up an email so Casey and I could email each other. He would send me all of these funny pictures and jokes. I would send him some, too.

Today I checked my email and Casey had sent me this message:

_Hey Sammy,_

_Meet me at the mall near the big elevator at 2 tomorrow. _

_Love,_

_Casey_

What was there to lose? Its not like I could do anything else around hear except knit sweaters with Grams or something.

So the next day, I set off to the mall.

And when I got to the big elevator, did two things to me.

First, I was completely startled.

Second, I think my heart ripped in half.

Because hidden sort of behind the plant, there was Casey.

Kissing Carrie Stevens.

**(a/n Carrie Stevens is a girl in Sammy's grade who I made up.)**


	3. Gram's Phone Bill Decreases Drastically

Casey immediately broke off the kiss. When he saw me, he sputtered, his eyes wide.

"Sammy! Wait! I can explain!"

I knew that if I stood there, I would have a heart attack. So I ran as fast as I could using my catcher legs and I didn't stop until I was on the couch in Grams' apartment. I could hear Casey running behind me, calling out my name.

And then I cried.

I haven't cried in a long time. The last credible time I remember was when Lady Lana decided she was going to leave to Hollywood and leave me behind in Santa Martina.

But this time, I bawled. I couldn't help it. My heart was as heavy as a bowling ball. I couldn't seem to believe the fact that Casey had cheated on me.

But I had seen the proof. And there was no going back.

Grams, tried to comfort me, but I was in such a miserable state of tears that I couldn't tell her. The phone was ringing like crazy. I told Grams not to pick it up. She saw how damaged I was, and for once, she didn't push it. When she went off to the store to buy more tissues, I ripped the phone cord out of the wall. I didn't care what Casey tried to say, what he tried to explain. I was through.

Then I deleted my email account.

But, for some reason, none of those things helped.

So I decided that I needed to _do _something. I walked around the apartment like an aimless idiot and did random things.

Fixed the pillows on the couch.

Killed a fly.

Made some coffee, then remembered what caffeine does to me, and tossed it down the drain.

Drew a picture of Heather and then ripped it to pieces.

Drew a picture of Casey and Carrie then ripped it to pieces, then threw those pieces on the street and watched cars drive over it.

Used my binoculars to watch TV across the street.

After a while, I realized how stupid I was. I shouldn't have just isolated myself just because I was _afraid._ I had to face him someday.

Too bad some things are easier said than done.

**Sorry it was so short and kinda weird! Gotta build up the suspense, people!**


	4. Marissa Traps Me

I don't remember how long I wallowed in the Senior Highrise. I remembered Grams asking me if I wanted to see someone.

"Do you want me to call one of those psychologist people? Anyone?"

"No way," I grumbled.

"Well you have to do something! You can't just stay here and mope!"

I decided not to respond.

"I think you just need to get out. Can you run to the grocery store and pick up some stuff for me?"

"Sure."

When I got back to the apartment from the grocery store, Grams was talking on the phone with someone. Great. I guess she figured out that it had been unplugged for 2 days already. I dropped the groceries on the counter and laid on the couch again.

"Sammy? Marissa's on the phone. She wants to talk to you."

Marissa? In the spur of the moment, I wondered if she had found out.

"Marissa?" I asked into the phone.

"Sammy! I heard what happened! Listen- Casey didn't cheat on you. He was set up! I've been trying to call the apartment nonstop the past 48 hours and-"

"I saw him! There's no way HIM KISSING CARRIE was a mistake. I'm hanging up now."

"Wait, Sammy, hear me out! Just come over! I can explain!" She seemed so desperate.

"Ok, fine, but I have stuff to do, so I can only stay for a little while." That was a total lie. I had nothing to do here except for "stay here and mope" as Grams would put it.

"Awesome. Don't worry, Sammy, you won't regret it!"

_Click. _

Oh, what had I gotten myself into?

I skateboarded to Marissa's like a truck. Seriously. Pedestrians were _walking_ faster than me. I realized that I hadn't skateboarded since the… incident. That must have been a record for me.

But whatever. I got to her house. It was already dark. I remembered that she told me that none of her parents were home. Mr. and Mrs. McKenze had left Marissa and her brother at home by themselves for a short business trip.

"Marissa?" I called.

"In the back!"

But when I got there, I didn't see anyone. Only a picnic blanket, a bunch of candles, and a picnic basket near the McKenzes' pool.

Ok, this was _officially _weird.

"Sammy?" a voice called. A very _familiar _voice.

Casey.

When I heard Casey's voice, I ran for the McKenzes' french door. There was no way I was talking to that two-timing creep again.

But then the door slammed. _Marissa._ I thought. _She's going to pay for this._

So I turned around and faced Casey. He was smiling, his warm chocolaty eyes twinkling…

_Wait, Sammy, hold on! You can't think that! He_ cheated _on you!_

So I raised my hand to slap him, and suddenly his eyes got wide.

"Sammy! Please! Let me explain!"

"Explain what? I SAW you. How could you do this to me, Casey?"

"I told you! I was set up!"

"By WHO?"

"I don't know! Just let me explain!" I waited. He continued.

"I got a note from you on my front porch telling you to meet me at the mall near the elevator at 1:50. I went over there, and Carrie started talking to me and she _kissed _me! Just _kissed _me! And then you came and you saw and I tried running after you but Carrie pulled me back, but by the time I got loose, you were gone! And then I called your house a million times and sent you a thousand emails but your phone was disconnected and your email said it was shut down. So I got the phonebook and called Marissa and she told me she'd get you here so I could apologize! And I'm so sorry for everything!"

He said this really fast and for a few seconds, I was speechless.

But my wit came back soon enough.

"And you think I'm just going to believe that?"

"I don't know. I-I just like you a lot Sammy and I… I don't know what happened. I understand if you never want to talk to me again, but, I don't know," he stammered.

And then something unexpected happened.

A single tear came down his cheek.

I stepped forward. More tears. I, in all my life, have never seen Casey Acosta cry. And here he was, more tears coming down his cheeks as I stepped forward again.

"Casey? Are you crying?" No, duh.

"No, my eyes are just… irritated." And then he seemed to change his mind.

"Yes," he admitted. He looked at his feet. I started to feel really bad, despite all the pain he put me through. Then, a reflex came to me.

I leaned over, tilted his chin up with my fingers, and kissed him.

It was a nice, long and passionate kiss. His lips were unbearably soft. I felt like I was floating, floating out of the McKenze's beautiful backyard and on to Cloud 9.

We pulled apart, our heads still close.

"Sammy… I love you. And losing you was the most devastating thing I'd ever experienced," he said to me, his brown eyes connecting with mine.

And suddenly, in my heart, I realized I'd felt the same way.

"I love you too, Casey. I'm sorry for running out on you and not giving you the chance at first," I admitted.

"It's alright. I'm just so happy that I finally have you back." He smiled that cute smile that never failed to make my heart go crazy.

"Me too." And with that, I leaned over and kissed him again.

**Finally, a long chapter! Too mushy? Too weird? Review! More chapters coming soon!**

**UPDATE 6/21: I'm thinking about getting a Marissa pairing in. What do you guys think?**


	5. Gifts, Picnics and Mysterious Windows

I think I died and went to heaven.

There's no way I could be this happy. I never thought this maximum happiness was even possible. Maybe it was just relief.

But I could still feel the hairs on my back sensing someone was watching us.

Then I remembered: Marissa. Of course she would be watching us.

"Do you think Marissa is spying on us?" I asked Casey.

"I AM NOT!" came from the window. Well, that answers that question. Casey chuckled. I looked up. The window curtains upstairs mysteriously closed. And I have had enough deduction training to figure out that that _wasn't _a ghost closing those curtains.

"Come here. I have something to show you." Casey led me over to the picnic blanket. He reached into the picnic basket and pulled out a flat, long-ish box.

"This is why I had to leave that time at the mall," he admitted. And at that moment, I couldn't believe that I could've gotten any happier.

But I did.

It was such a relief, knowing that he didn't leave that one day to go make out with Carrie or something. I felt the _tiniest _bit smug at the moment. (But then I remembered that being totally not-humble was something my moronic mother "Lady" Lana would do, so I immediately stopped.)

I shook my head back to reality. It was surprising, though, that I considered all of _this _a reality. Casey had always seemed more like a dream than part of the freakshow of a life I live in.

At that moment, Casey faced me, looking deep into my eyes. I almost drowned again in the chocolaty-goodness. Thankfully I stopped myself quick enough before I could make a fool of myself in front of Casey again.

"I know you're not the kind of girl to go crazy over this kind of thing, but I wanted to give something to you. As appreciation. I've had so many great times with you, and I haven't forgotten a second of it."

And then he opened the box.

Inside was a medium-sized silver key. At the top, there was a loop and I noticed that through the loop, there was a delicate chain. It was a necklace. Engraved in the top part of the key, there was a small heart. Now, Casey was right. I'm not the kind of girl who likes jewelery. I hate wearing it. It just gets in the way of things like playing catcher and stalking random-but-suspicious-looking dudes.

But staring at the delicate little key in Casey's hand, I realized that deep inside, I'm a sucker. For love. For Casey.

"I understand if you think it's kind of weird… I can always return it." Casey looked doubtful.

"No, no. It's perfect. I love it." And it was. It wasn't like it was one of those princess-y heart chain things. It was like me: opening all sorts of truths and surprises.

So then, Casey stood up and took the necklace out of the box. He walked around me. Like always, goosebumps sprang up when he got close. Traitorous skin.

He swept my hair, which surprisingly I had left down, and fastened the chain around my neck.

"So what's inside the basket?" I asked.

"I don't know. Marissa set this up, and you know her."

"HEY!" came from the window again. I snickered.

"Do you guys want to get some dinner?" Casey asked, obviously talking to Marissa, too.

I couldn't think of anything better. "Yeah, sure"

"YEAH! LET'S GO!" Marissa screamed.

"Burger Hut?" I suggested with a chuckle, reminding Casey of our first date.

He shrugged. "Sure!"

And so off to Burger Hut we went.

**Alright, 5****th**** chapter done! I know some people don't like the romantic-y Cammy stuff that much so I'm going to put some showdowns between Sammy and Heather in the future. Also, I'm thinking about pairing Marissa up. After all she's done for Sammy, I think she deserves it!**

**REVIEW! Your reviews keep me motivated!**


	6. We Discuss Revenge Over Burgers

**Hey guys! I planned on getting this chapter up earlier, but my dad was "fixing" our home computer system and I lost the internet for the whole freaking day. So, sorry!**

Before we left, I called Grams from Marissa's house phone.

"Hello? Sammy?" she said.

"Hey Grams. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to go get something to eat with Marissa and Casey."

"Casey? So everything's alright now, sweetheart?" 

"Yeah, Grams. Everything's great."

"Ok. You kids have fun. And stay out of trouble, you hear me? I don't want to have to fake being Lana again."

I didn't want her to, either. The last time scared the crap out of me. Any chance of me moving to Hollywood with my mother scared the crap out of me.

"I will, Grams. I promise."

Marissa was able to leave Mikey at a neighbor's house, a girl who apparently was going to be a sophomore next year. It took a lot of persuasion, but eventually he agreed to go because Marissa let him bring his goldfish tank. Poor little Mikey- he really needed to get more friends.

So _finally_ we left to Burger Hut. Casey kept on trying to hold my hand, and as much as I wanted to, I felt bad for Marissa because it would make her feel like a third wheel.

"Not now. Marissa!" I whispered.

He grinned. "I can take care of that."

I don't know what he had up his sleeve, but I decided just to wait until we got to the restaurant.

So we walked to Burger Hut like old friends, laughing about random stuff like hobos, moldy pepperoni (don't ask, Marissa's just a weird chick sometimes), and just life in general. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much afterwards.

When we got to the restaurant, Casey finally decided to execute his plan.

"So, Marissa. I hear someone likes you."

Marissa had been poking at her burger, but when she heard the last three words of Casey's sentence, her face immediately lit up and she sat up pin-straight. "Who?"

"Well I suppose he's one of my buddies."

"Who? Is it _Danny_?" She said Danny's name in reverence as if she was worshipping it.

"We'll see. He's going to ask you out on the first week of school." He winked at me, and like and like the idiot I was, I blushed with vivid shades of red.

"DO NOT LIE TO ME, BOY! I AM NOT THE ONE TO MESS WITH!" Marissa stressed viciously and grabbed the chest part of Casey's shirt. She was a little _too _loud, if you ask me because everyone within a 15-foot radius of us stared like we were a bunch of clowns in a weird circus act. Which, now that I thought about it, could have been possible by the way we were acting.

"Jeez, chill Marissa. He told me not to tell you and I've already broken half of my promise. So be _grateful _and wait until school starts."

Now, you maybe wondering how someone going into their freshman year could easily ask out an 8th grader still in junior high. It turns out that the city of Santa Martina had decided to merge the junior high and the high school because of budget cuts. William Rose Middle School was small enough anyway, so the city council people said _Why not? _and William Rose Middle School and Santa Martina High School became Santa Martina Upper School. A tiny, embarrassing part of me was super-excited because that meant more time with my man. Ugh. Did I seriously just say that? How cliché. Me and my big mouth.

After a while, I decided to ask a burning question. I have these strange natural instincts to… solve stuff.

"So," I tried casually. "Who do you think set us up?" I had a duh! moment 5 milliseconds after I asked the question.

"Heather," all three of us said simultaneously. I chuckled.

"But how?" I asked, seriously wanting to know.

"Well, you didn't leave the note on my door a few days ago, did you?" Casey asked me.

"Noo… did you send me that email message telling me to meet you at the mall?"

"No way! You know what? This is totally something Heather would do. She obviously the password to my email account and sent you that email. Then, she convinced _Carrie _to, er, be there." He stumbled over the last sentence, obviously still embarrassed about the whole thing.

"So, Sammy?" Marissa was getting excited now. "What are you going to do as revenge?"

Did I really want to stoop to her level? "Nothing. This stupid little fight between us has gone on way too long and I am going to do the mature thing and show her that I'm just going to give it up."

Casey and Marissa cracked up. "You? Do the _mature _thing?" Marissa was howling with laughter now.

"Yeah, you're probably right. But could you guys at least give me credit for _attempting _to be mature?"

"Ok, fine. But, when you finally get your revenge, you have to let me be a part of it."

"Count me in, too, Sammy. My wacko sister needs a taste of her own medicine, and there's no way I'm missing any part of it." Casey said.

"Deal."

So, after a few hours of chilling out and laughing our heads off, we all decided that it was time to turn in. We all walked back to Marissa's house. Casey and I grabbed our skateboards and Casey insisted on boarding with me to the Senior Highrise. The streets of Santa Martina were scary at night, but I was glad I was with Casey. One time a few months ago, I was walking in the night by myself. These high-schoolers were smoking something that smelled totally nasty. The scariest part was when they asked me if I wanted to join them. Marijuana, they said it was. I said no and tried to get on my way. One of the creepy guys looked at me with his red eyes and tried to drag me. Man, he was strong, but I took a pen out of my pocket and stabbed his shoulder real hard with my free hand. Definitely one of the scariest moments in my life. But I always felt safe with Casey. It was like he was a protective wall, keeping me from danger. But, on our way back, we were surprised by something strange.

Someone was running.

Away from us.

Out of curiosity, and also because I'm pretty much a certified snooper, I boarded after the person. Casey couldn't do anything except chase on after me.

The person ran into the brick of a building, and apparently decided that they were cornered.

The mystery person turned to face us.

Casey growled. (Yes, growled.) I gasped.

Carrie.

**Oooh, suspense! I just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be updating often because the chapters are short and I'm kind of on a roll right now. Also, the Heather/Sammy big showdown is coming soon. And so is Marissa's mystery guy!**

**Will it be Marissa's old flame, Danny? Or someone new and different? Questions, questions! So keep on reading and waiting for those updates. AND REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!**

**Special thanks to ****xXFreshMuffinsXx, .Person, Swiftpaw109, and HighTops4life ****for all of their wonderful compliments and ideas. You guys are helping me sooo much!**


	7. Too Much Happens As We Board Home

Carrie was in my grade at school, but I didn't actually know a lot about her. I knew that she was perfect: tall, blonde and beautiful. She was also some huge soccer star. Apparently, she had been on some talk show about America's most talented kids when she was 9. At William Rose, she was one of the most popular girls at school. I'd actually never seen her hang around Heather, but I guess I was wrong: they'd been buddies all along.

The only thing about Carrie was that she wasn't the smartest girl ever. She'd been in a few of my classes last year, and she always got Ds and Fs on tests.

"Sammy! Casey! I didn't want to do it! Heather blackmailed me!" she exclaimed.

Ok, I've been surprised a _lot _of times in my life, but this one managed to completely blow my mind. I knew Heather was evil, but I hadn't realized that she was actually that much of a witch.

"What?" I said.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"You better be." Casey snarled.

"Wait, how did Heather blackmail you?" I was insanely curious.

"Um… if I tell you, I could be in a lot of trouble."

I eyed her furiously. "Well, then." 

"Ok, fine! I'll tell you. Just promise me you won't tell _anyone_."

"We promise." I glanced at Casey. He sighed. He still wanted to do some… damaging.

"K, jeez, I promise."

"Well, I haven't been doing that great in school. And I… I had to make sure that I passed. Or else I wouldn't be able to try out for the National Junior Women's soccer team. See, you have to pass the 7th grade before you can try out. It's one of the requirements. So, I took my history teacher's answer sheet. And… I cheated on the test. Now, before you start getting any horrible thoughts about me, you have to remember: I've worked my whole life, since I was practically old enough to walk, so I could make this team. Heather was about to ruin all of it. She caught me writing down the answers. She told me that she wouldn't tell anyone, but last week she managed to find me. She told me that I had to… I had to do _it_. Or she would tell the school and I wouldn't pass all required subjects to make the soccer team." She breathed deeply and looked at Casey and I with apologetic eyes.

"I understand if you will never forgive me, but I had to do it. I just had to. And I'm _so _sorry." She looked down. At this moment, I was thinking _That witch! How could she do something like that?_

"Look, I forgive you. I know you're risking failing by even telling us." I said calmly. But inside, I was a hurricane. A hurricane that was going straight towards a little place I like to call _revenge._

"So do I. How about we just forget about everything that happened?" Casey offered.

A look of relief brushed over Carrie's face. "I agree."

"I know that face. It's your Heather's-gonna-pay face." Casey looked at me with knowing.

"Yes, it is. Now let's go home. I need to think." I grabbed Casey by the arm and kept my eyes directly in front of me as I hopped on my skateboard. I looked at Carrie directly.

"Thanks, Carrie. See you around." But Carrie's phone had vibrated. She whipped it open, murmured a quiet "K, bye.", and walked away, furiously texting the person back. What did I expect from one of William Rose's queen bees?

But back to revenge. My mind was buzzing with possible scenarios. It was like the wheels in my head wouldn't stop turning.

So, Casey and I boarded back to the Senior Highrise mainly in silence. And just when I thought our little ride back home was already exciting enough…

We ran into Heather.

"YOU!" She pointed at me when she said this. "AND YOU!" Her french-manicured finger moved to point at Casey.

"Nice vocabulary, Heather." I scowled. But she just walked up to me. And then at that moment, I saw everything flash before my eyes. Before I had time to react and defend-

Heather punched me across the face, smack dab on my nose.

"And that was what _should_ have happened at the Farewell Dance." She smiled smugly.

"Heather! You little- bit- WITCH!" Casey runs up and goes forward to smack Heather across the face even harder.

Then, everything became surreal. My _face_ hurt like someone had run it over with a truck. Blood was flowing everywhere on my clothes, on the pavement, everywhere. But I was angry as a bull. And I run up to join Casey in a little boxing. Target? Heather.

But the, all of a sudden, a car pulls up. It's a blue convertible. Cans and other crap are strewn on the floors and in the black seat. It smells really bad, a rank scent that I recall smelling before. But whatever. Heather hops in, _just hops in._ And before I have time to blink, the car is gone and away.

Casey insists on skateboarding after the car. "It's no use," I tell him. "She planned it perfectly, just perfectly." I grimace as I wipe the blood off my face with my sweater. I hadn't really been paying attention when I threw it on, but it had been a gift from Lady Lana. All the more reason to completely smother it with blood.

"So did you notice the dude in the front?" I asked. His face seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place why.

"Nope. It's probably just Heather, up to no good as usual. Let's get you home," he says.

"Grams is gonna have a heart attack."

"I think I just had a heart attack. But at least you're safe now." He leans over and kisses me on the lips, blood stained an all. My heart flipped in a 360.

When we got close to the Highrise, he kissed me again.

"Good luck."

"Thanks." I give him a quick smile and dash up the fire escape.

When Grams sees me, she grabs her chest, like she really _is _having a heart attack.

"Samantha, what happened?"

"Heather. Heather happened." And I go into the next room and sit on the chair.

And I plan my revenge.

**Update 6/25/10: Hey guys! I won't be able to update until Monday or later because I have a soccer tournament this weekend. But, on my downtime, I will be planning a freaking EPIC revenge. I have some ideas, but they are not completely finished. So, if you guys have any ideas, send me a message. Please DON'T post them as a review because if I end up using them, then I want them to be a surprise! Thanks!**


	8. Revenge Is Set

**Sorry I haven't updated as soon as I would have liked to! The soccer tournament took up all of my time and I couldn't really think of good ideas. Also, don't be surprised if this chapter and the ones on out turn out to be really spy-ish. I just finished Ally Carter's ****Heist Society**** and last night my friends and I had a spy-movie marathon. Just giving you heads-up on what to expect!**

I decided that revenge would be subtle. I wasn't going to let Heather think that she really hurt me.

That is, until Heather decided that she wouldn't be.

The other day, I was surfing Facebook **(a/n: Am I allowed to put this? Or is it breaking some rule? Please let me know!) **when I found the link to Gwen Sheffield's stupid gossip blog, Santa Martina Scoop. Ugh. I hated how she spread all these rumors about kids at our school and started all of this unnecessary drama. Now, under normal circumstances, I would've completely ignored it.

But these weren't normal circumstances.

Definitely not normal.

The post read:

_Check out my new blog post and find the latest juicy details of all that's happening at Santa Martina Upper School! Today's feature story is about the romance between Sammy Keyes and Casey Acosta._

I clicked on the link, furious. The blog read.

_Is something sizzling between the outspoken Sammy Keyes and the popular Casey Acosta? Sure is! A reliable source tells Santa Martina Scoop that this summer, the two have hooked up and maybe even more. Our source tells us that "they went far beyond just kissing, if you know what I mean." Keep on reading Santa Martina Scoop in the future for more details about SMUS' hottest couple._

I felt like I was going to scream.

Reliable source? That smelled like _Heather _all over. She was the only one rotten enough to spread such a far-fetched rumor. Of course, she was referring to the time just a month weeks ago where we had to sleep in the same tent with _three other girls and boys._ Absolutely nothing happened. Zip. Nada.

I thought about chatting Gwen right now through Facebook and setting her story straight. But then, 10 of my "friends" chatted me at the same time saying things like "Is it true?" and "OMG!" Totally freaked out, I went offline and logged out.

So I called Casey. He had read the post, too, and was just as mad about it as I was, maybe even more. He agreed that it was Heather. I suggested posting that it was NOT true, but Casey said that it might just fuel the rumors even more.

So after I hung up, I decided one thing. Revenge was not going to be subtle.

No, it was going to be monumental.

I called Marissa and told her about my plan. She suggested that I have a revenge meeting at her house. I called a bunch of people to come and be a part of it.

At 3:30, I boarded over. I got one of the McKenze's "seminar whiteboards" and began writing out my plan before everyone came.

Casey arrived first. I was surprised to see Billy along with him.

"Hey, sorry, he wouldn't let me go unless I brought him." Casey apologized.

"I wanna do stuff!" He whined like a little kid and began bawling like one too. I cracked up. It's impossible not to crack up around Billy Pratt.

I was sort of disappointed that Dot and Holly couldn't come. Holly was super-busy at the dog groomers. So many dogs needed to be shaved of their winter coats for the blazing hot summer weather. Dot and her family went on vacation to Egypt. (At first I thought it was cool that she was going on a foreign vacation, but then I heard it was Egypt. And Egypt means mummies. And mummies do _not _bring back happy memories. Just ask Marissa.)

So I invited one of my new friends, Cricket Kuo. You, know, one of the girls present in the tent the night Casey and I "slept" with each other?

Everyone sat down in the McKenze's living room. I counted heads and realized that someone was missing. Oh yeah, it was-

"Sorry I'm late, my trainer ran practice longer." Carrie sauntered in, eyes glued to her cell phone. She threw her soccer bag in the corner of the room. It amazed me how she could have totally messy hair, sweat everywhere on her face, and be wearing un-flattering soccer clothes and still look supermodel gorgeous. She snapped her phone closed. "So, what's up?"

"Well, all of you guys here have faithfully volunteered to help me take revenge on my nemesis, Heather Acosta." I started. Everyone murmured in agreement and excitement.

"So, I've made a basic plan, but I need help finishing it up. My main goal is for Heather to confess to all of the crap she did to me this summer. So, here's prep. I pointed to Carrie's name, where under it I wrote "double-agent".

"Cool, so we're like spies now?" Billy exclaims. He starts singing the Mission: Impossible theme song.

"Sort of. Carrie, I know it's a lot to ask from you, but you will be helping me a _ton._ I want you to get close to the enemy. Find out her secrets."

"You mean like, hang out with her?" she says in disgust.

"Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it."

"No way! I told myself I'm never going even _close _to the creeper again."

"I know, but you're the only person she won't suspect."

"Fine! But only because she blackmailed me and almost destroyed my life," Carrie says dramatically.

"Thanks! I owe you one."

"Don't mention it." She whips out her phone again and starts texting again.

"Ok, now on the main mission day. I've decided to wait until school starts." I point to the section I labeled for this part. I move my finger to the part where I wrote "Marissa- operations overseer", "Cricket- technology", and just Casey's name. I added in Billy's name below Casey's. "I don't know how, but I need someone to tear away Heather's groupies when the time comes. I was thinking that Casey should do this, but I don't see how he would."

"Easy. All of Heather's little followers are totally obsessed with him." Carrie says, not looking up from her phone. Casey throws me an uncomfortable glance. I mirrored his expression.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"When you're me, you know these things."

"Ok then." I move on to explain the other people's parts. I end up writing "distraction #1" under Casey's name and "distraction #2" under Billy's.

I was exhausted after I finished. Everyone started to file out.

"Hey, Marissa! I hear from my boy Casey that someone _likes _you." Billy teases. Marissa's face goes beet-red.

"Do you know who it is?"

"I do, but I'm not telling you!" He says this in a way that a first-grader would.

"Oooh, do you think it's Danny, Marissa?" Cricket asks.

"I don't know! I hope so!" Her eyes go all dreamy.

After all that happened today, I knew one thing was true: I couldn't wait to go back to school.


	9. Cool Gadgets and Werid Fantasies

So, I was practically dying waiting for school to start. That may seem kind of nerdy any other day, but not in my case.

I passed the time by hanging out with Marissa, Holly, Dot, Casey and my oldest but wisest friend, Hudson. I told Hudson about my plan. His reaction? He thought it was "exceedingly brilliant."

I went over to my new friend Cricket's house a few times to hang out and work on the "avengement" as Billy had taken to call the plan. Cricket's brother, Gary helped me get some technology for the avengement. Cricket and I went down to Gary's "nerd cave", as Cricket liked to call it, and Gary showed us some stuff he used for some human studies class a few years ago.

"This baseball cap? There's a small camera right in the front that you can adjust so it's pointing right at the person's face. On these side ridges, there are some sound recorders that can capture every word with precision," Gary told me.

"Wow, this is so cool. It must have cost you a fortune." This was really cool stuff.

"Nah, I was working with some other guys on this project. We all chipped in to buy this cap and had a competition to see who would get it." He sent me a smug smile.

"Really? What was it?"

"Oh, just a competition to see who could dismantle and put their computer back toget-"

"_Ok, _we don't need to hear about your little dork events- come on Sammy. And take the hat," Cricket interrupted. I grabbed the cap. Surprisingly, it was nice-looking. It was black, white and red. It would match my high-tops _perfectly_. Cricket and I climbed up the stairs, leaving a grumpy Gary behind.

We played around with the cap for a while. After a few hours or so, my cell phone rang. Lady Lana had sent it over for me a week ago. As much as I hated to admit it, it was a nice phone. A Pantec. I knew she had only given it to me to show how "fantastic" she was doing in Hollywood.

But, anyway, I checked the caller ID and it was Carrie.

"Hello? Sammy? You gotta get me outta here!" Carrie whispered sharply.

"Why? Where are you? And why are you whispering?"

"I'm at Heather's house! In the bathroom so she can't here me! She's torturing me with all of her gossip and general stupidity! I can't do this anymore!"

"Wai wai wait! No! Please. Besides, if you flake on her now, she might reveal your secret!"

"Aw, damn, you're right! Well, I think I'm doing pretty good. Got some juicy deets, if you know what I mean." I could practically see her winking on the other end.

"Ok, well keep it up. Thanks so much!"

"K, bye."

_Click._

"So, what was up with Carrie?" Cricket asked.

"Oh, just being melodramatic, as usual."

"Right. So can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why didn't you just have Carrie record her confessing? It would be easier," she timidly asked."

"Well, that wouldn't be as fun and satisfying, now would it? Besides, a lot of people wanted to be a part of it. So, I might as well let them."

"You're right. I'm super-psyched for the avengement."

I grinned. "Me, too."

"Hey, I think there might be some problems with your plan. How are you going to get away after you record her confessing?"

"Hmm. I actually don't know."

"Well, how bout I help you up the side of the building? We could use some rock-climbing gear."

"Isn't that a little dramatic?"

She shrugged. "I want Heather to know that I was a part of it, too. Besides, the whole avengement is already overdone."

"Ok. I'll call my 'operations overseer' and she'll tell the rest of the crew." I felt like an unworthy James Bond fake now. But I called Marissa anyway.

Casey took me out to Burger Hut a few more times. It was our romantic date night venue. Casey felt like a butt for not taking me somewhere nicer, but to me, nothing could've been more romantic. There were too many wonderful memories there. I couldn't help thinking how I had found the _one_. It may have seemed sort of early (and creepy) but I wanted him to be the one who would grow old with me and sit on our front porch, watching out grandchildren run around us. It was something I would never admit to him, or anyone else on the planet. It was way too weird.

It may have not worked out anyway, seeing that he was perfect and I was… not.

**Ahhh sorry for the dramatic and drabble-ish chapter. You guys will be pleased to know that Marissa's mystery guy will be revealed in the next chapter, though!**


	10. Marissa Meets Her Mystery Guy

**Hey guys! I'm writing this at midnight. Why so late? Two reasons: 1.) I'm just a night person and 2.) I'm **_**really **_**excited to reveal Marissa's mystery dude.**

Finally, school started. I set the date for the avengement on the Thursday of the first week of school. But, there were other things to worry about. One was the guy who has an "insanely huge crush on Marissa" as Casey had said. Marissa was _positive_ that it was Danny. I wasn't so sure. After all the freakish things that have happened in my life, I was used to surprises.

Casey told me that Marissa's guy wanted to reveal himself in the west courtyard after school on the first Tuesday of our 8th grade lives. I passed this on to a squealing Marissa.

I knew she would be mad about this, but I was just so curious to what would happen. I knew it wasn't positive that Marissa would tell me everything about her encounter with her guy.

So, like the certified snooper I am, I was going to spy on her.

The west courtyard was the quietest courtyard by far. But, it was also my favorite. The overhang was white wood with vines lacing through it. There was something about it that made me feel really calm. I think it was the fact that it was the only courtyard that didn't have gaudy couples that liked to make out right in the middle of public, where everyone can puke in front of them. No, the west courtyard was for the couples who actually _liked_ each other, not the ones who were just going out for their image.

I hoped this was a good omen to who Marissa's guy would be.

I decided that I would watch from the balcony. The building surrounded the courtyard Mexican-style, which was perfect because I could see _everything_.

Marissa casually walked in the courtyard and sat on an unoccupied bench. I saw through her nonchalance. I was pretty sure she was doing the McKenze dance inside her head.

Someone walks through one of the entrances.

It's Danny.

Marissa sees him too. Her eyes are brimming with happiness.

Danny starts walking her direction.

"Hey Danny!" She sends him her best megawatt smile.

"Hey Marissa," he smiles back.

"So… what are you doing here?" she asks timidly.

"Oh, just came here to study. It's the quietest courtyard and it doesn't have all of those makeout couples." He frowns. "What are you doing here?" He seems to notice that she doesn't have anything except her backpack with her.

"Oh… just waiting for someone," she responds, not bothering to cover up her disappointment.

Danny looks at her, oblivious to the fact that something is obviously wrong. "Awesome. Well, I gotta go study. See you around?"

"Yeah. See you around."

Danny walks over to the tree on the opposite side of the place where Marissa is sitting. He sits down, takes out his books and reads.

By now, the hairs on my back are standing up. It's that weird feeling that I get when I know something weird is coming up behind me.

"Sammy!" someone whispers sharply. Every nerve in my body relaxes at the voice I would know anywhere.

Casey sits down next to me and looks through the holes in the cement railing like I am now. "Wanted to watch the show, too?" He looks at me with a lopsided grin.

"I don't understand. If it's not Danny, then who is it?"

He doesn't respond. He just grins again, his chocolaty eyes staring gently into mine.

I get sucked into the strange but wonderful hypnotic powers his eyes have on me. It takes me a few embarrassing moments to recover, but eventually all four of our eyes are back on Marissa in the courtyard.

I notice a few people in the courtyard in 9th grade. I scope faces for guys who could possibly be Marissa's guy. Billy Pratt is in the corner of the courtyard, showing a small group of people a new trick where he "pulls" off his thumb. He walks over to a few more people and shows them the trick. Then he goes over to Marissa.

"Not now, Billy, I'm waiting for someone. Maybe tomorrow, in homeroom?" She looks at him, her eyes pleading him to leave.

"Oh, I just need to ask you a quick question. It will only take a few minutes."

"Ok, fine. What is it?" She asks blindly, her eyes still scanning the crowd.

"Do you want to go out with me?"

"Huh? Sorry what was that?" She says, still distracted.

For the first time ever, Billy's face was dejected. "I said, do you want to go out with me?"

Marissa's eyes shoot wide open. My jaw drops to the floor.

"Billy? I thought you meant one of your 9th grade friends!" I whisper to Casey.

"When did I ever say that?" He winks at me.

Marissa stammers "Uhh… I don't know… I thought you had a harem!"

"Umm… no… I just said that to make you jealous." Billy admits, looking at his shoes. "I get it if you wanna say no. Some people think I'm kind of… you know, crazy."

I read Marissa's face. It's confused, but nevertheless she stumbles out a "No, it's ok. I'll go out with you."

"Really?" Billy grins from ear to ear.

"Yeah!" She smiles back, but it's forced.

"Awesome!"

"Yeah...," she repeats. "Listen, I gotta go… I have tennis lessons." I snort in laughter. Marissa _hates _tennis, and she _always _makes sure I know that. She dashes out and leaves a beaming Billy behind. Once she's out of the courtyard vicinity, my phone starts to vibrate in my pocket. Of course, it's Marissa. I show Casey the front of my phone, so he can see this, too.

He nods. "I'm gonna go talk to Billy." He gives me a quick kiss, and dashes down the stairs. My heart went through a temporary seizure, like it does whenever he kisses me.

I open up my phone. "Marissa? What's up?"

"It's Billy! He's the one who wanted to ask me out!" she blurts.

"Really?" I say, trying my absolute hardest to act surprised. "What did you say?"

"Yes. I felt bad for him!"

"Well, do you like him?"

"I haven't really thought about it, but he's pretty cool. I just don't know if I can handle it."

"Handle what?"

"You know… all of the crazy."

"Oh, give him a chance, Marissa. He might be a romantic softie inside." I giggle at how ridiculous that sounded.

"Ok. Fine."

"How about we double-date tonight? You, Billy, Casey and I can go out to the movies."

"I don't know."

"Come on, it will be fun."

"Ok. But, you promise you'll keep the PDA to a minimum?"

I sighed. "Deal. But you guys should follow that, too." I teased.

She snorted. "I don't think there will be a problem there."

"You never know." I muttered.

**REVIEW! Your reviews are the bread and water to the life of this story!**


	11. The Great Double Date

**So sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy with camp and friends. Also, I've been really addicted to one of Wendelin Van Draanen's books, ****Runaway****. It's this amazing book about the life of Holly (Sammy's friend) before she came to Santa Martina. If you haven't read it, then read it right now because it's soooo awesome!**

I decided to chose the most generic date idea ever: the movies. Casey was all up for the idea, and so was Billy. We'd go out to dinner first, then hit the movies. The showing was really early. 5.30. But I guess I was sort of desperate to have Marissa spend some "quality time" with her date, so I didn't pay an ounce of attention to the movie time.

At the restaurant (which was, now this may shock you, _not_ burger hut), Marissa tried to stay as close to me as possible. I confronted her about this after a few annoying minutes.

"Marissa! You have a date, and it's not me! Go talk to him! Do _something_." I whispered when the guys had gone up to order food.

"I know! I just… I'm just nervous. I don't know what to say! It's sooo awkward!"

"Come on! It's just Billy! The same old Billy we've been friends with since forever."

"It may be the same Billy, but it's different! I… I don't know! I'll figure out something," she stumbled out.

"Ok! Now sit on _that_ side." I pointed to the spot next to Billy's chair. She glared at me, then moved over. The glare was kinda weak though. And she did the McKenze dance as the guys came back with the food.

"Rations for the ladies." Billy said smoothly, in his signature British accent. Marissa smiled nervously. Casey slid in the booth next to me, and Billy sat across from him, next to Marissa, who looked like she needed to pee.

Casey leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. I looked at Marissa, who sent daggers to me with her eyes. I looked at Casey, and then at Marissa. These days, it seemed Casey and I had our own language that we didn't actually need to _speak_.

_Marissa! She told me to keep the PDA to a minimum, _I thought.

He sent me a puppy-dog face. I swear I almost melted right there. But I kept my eyes firm, and he reluctantly obliged.

So, throughout the whole dinner, I tried to get Marissa to be comfortable around Billy, Casey kept the conversation going, Marissa scooted to the wall side of the booth (away from Billy) and Billy acted like… Billy. There was really no other way to put it.

We finally went to the movies and saw this action-spy flick that actually turned out to be really good. While Billy prattled on and on about the awesome stunts he _swears_ he could pull off, Marissa walked silently, looking at the ground. I was desperate to not let the date end.

"We've got time to kill, so do you guys want to hang out at the mall for a little while?"

"Sure!" Casey said. Apparently, he was trying to elongate the date, too.

Billy prattled on until we got to the mall. But when we passed the arcade, Marissa did something that shouldn't have surprised me, but considering the circumstances, it did.

She actually spoke.

And she didn't just speak, she yelled. And ran. And dragged me by my elbow.

"No way! They have it Sammy! The new game I've been waiting to play since I was in diapers!" By now, the guys had followed us into the arcade. I looked at the name of the game. Mafia Domination: Universe. It looked pretty lame to me, but I'm no video-game expert, so I'm not the one to ask. But, Marissa was jumping up and down, asking for change from me. I dug into my pockets and pulled out some leftover quarters from the movie ticket I bought earlier that night. She snatched them from me and threw it in the slot.

"Aw, man! It says I need someone else to play with!" She frowned. Casey and I looked, away, hoping that certain action would make us invisible enough so that Marissa would be forced to choose someone else.

Billy, of course.

Luckily, he was all up for it. "Me, me, pick me!" he yelped, bouncing up and down like a toddler.

Thankfully, Marissa noticed that Casey and I didn't really want to play and was forced to choose Billy. He grabbed the blue plastic gun and Marissa grabbed the red one. They began shooting at these creepy-looking dead soldier guys.

"I got you, now! Take that, ghosty dude!" Billy exclaimed.

"Awesome shot, Billy! We totally nailed those guys!" Marissa grinned.

Billy stopped was he was doing and smiled at Marissa's compliment. His brain seemed to be in some other universe as he beamed at Marissa.

"Billy! We still have to crush these freaks!" Marissa shouted. Billy's attention snapped back to Earth and he proceeded on to shoot like a maniac and make sounds as he went along. Basically, typical Billy behavior.

Casey and I shared a secret smile. "It turned out okay after all, didn't it.," he whispered in my ear.

"Look at that happy couple," I snickered, but in a good way.

For the first time that night, he kissed me on the lips. Marissa saw this, but she was to busy high-fiving Billy to care.

Casey smiled, his beautiful face close to mine. "That makes two happy couples in total." My heart flew.

It turned out that Marissa and Billy played that weird game for two hours! They let Casey and I play once, but of course I sucked and Casey had to do all of the monster-killing work. Inevitably, our "army" died because of me and Marissa and Billy eagerly returned to the controls to kill more savages.

I walked home with Marissa, and she gushed about Billy the whole time.

"You were right! I just needed to give him a chance," she raved, her eyes all twinkly.

I just nodded. I couldn't have said anything anyway, because she butted in and blabbered on about how funny she was, how wonderful and nice and kind he was.

At this point, I could have just spaced out and thrown in some "uh huh"s and "Really?"s and Marissa wouldn't have noticed if a volcano exploded right in front of her face.

So I got a lot of time to think.

I thought about the Great Double-Date, and how sweet Casey was and how cute of a couple Billy and Marissa make.

But mostly I thought about Thursday.

I thought about the much-deserved revenge Heather was going to receive. I thought about how this would settle the score once and for all.

Oh yes, it would.

**Yay! So now that this Marissa/ Billy stuff is out of the way (btw, tell me what you thought about the pairing and how I decided to execute the date!) the next chapter is going to be totally devoted to the revenge. Yes, it's coming up! And yes it's going to be freaking EPIC.**


	12. Heather Acosta, a Pain In the Head

I couldn't sleep Wednesday night. Not at all. Grams went into her room around 9, thinking that I was asleep.

But I wasn't.

I was just laying on Grams' couch, Dorito snuggled next to me. I couldn't believe that our plan was going into action _tomorrow_. We had planned it so long ago that I was starting to think that it was never real all along. Despite this, the avengement was as real as Marissa's obsession with softball and video games.

At first I thought I was ready. I had planned everything so precise I swear it was flawless. But then my mind went crazy and thought of all of the worst-possible scenarios. I kept trying to tell myself that they would never happen.

But not everything I planned turned out _exactly_ the way I wanted it to.

I had to be ready, though. I had a whole crew behind me that was ready, even if I wasn't.

I got to school early, talked to my crew and for the rest of the school day, everything seemed to run pretty smoothly. The avengement would happen at the end of the day, after school.

I hid behind some lockers as Casey went up to Heather and her stupid cronies.

"Hey girls," he said, convincingly. Almost _too _convincingly. I was going to be sick.

"Hey Casey!" they (excluding Heather, of course) swooned, batting their eyelashes.

"Girls, let's get away from this loser," Heather snorted. She attempted to pull her group, but they just wouldn't budge.

Billy walked up to Heather, right on cue. "Heather wearing leather with a feather! I need to tell you something." I almost laughed out loud at Billy's nickname. I stopped myself just in time.

"What?" she said in a snotty tone. "I don't have time for this." 

"Oh so you _don't _want to know that Jason McDaniel wants to talk to you?" Billy mocked. Jason McDaniel was apparently a guy Heather had a crush on. Just a little factoid, courtesy of Carrie Stevens.

"WHAT?" Heather screamed. "Take me to him!" she commanded.

"Geez, no need to go all girly-girl on me." Billy said. But he lead Heather away, anyway, just the way we planned.

Casey lead Heather's cronies away, laughing with them, yet again very convincingly.

I ran through the passageways that I had discovered lead faster to the alley of the abandoned building a few buildings away from the school. I got there before Heather and Billy.

"Billy, where is Jason?" Heather said impatiently.

"Jason? Now why would Jason be here? I have to go pour cement." He runs off, right past me.

"Billy! Come back here!" she yelps. But she realizes that he's way too far away to actually _catch_ him. So she just groans and whines and mumbles "idiot" under her breath.

Right on cue, I step out. Now, at this point in the game I'm feeling quite woozy and doozy and all of the other –oozys out there. But I couldn't' let Heather see my nervousness.

"Hello, Heather." I start.

"What are you doing here, you ignorant has-been?"

"Funny. I was just about to ask you that same question." I glared.

"What do you want, loser?"

"I know what you did."

She sneered. "What are you going to do about it?"

I ignored her question. "So, you did set me up to see Casey "cheating" on me? And you did spread rumors that Casey and I _slept _together?"

She snorted. "You two probably did anyway. My brother's so thick-headed he'd probably _do it_ with a porker like you."

"So you admit you did all of those things?"

"Of course. Now, why do you keep on asking me?"

"Because I want to make it clear. Just so I can let the whole world know. I'm videotaping your words as we speak."

She didn't say anything. She just growled. Yes, actual growlage. Her breath stank _sooo _bad. It was a familiar scent to me, but I couldn't place it right then and there. Besides, she was baring her teeth.

And then to match her tiger-attitude, she lunged.

I followed the plan. I ran my fastest to the side of the building. A rappelling cord came flying down from the top of the abandoned building. I unzipped my jacket and revealed the rock-climbing harness underneath.

Just as I was about to hook my harness to the cord, Heather grabbed me with those claws of hers. She dragged me to the center of the alley just as the rappelling cord rose up.

My only escape.

Gone.

The only thing left to do was to face her. Either that, or get away. And _those _chances didn't seem too good considering the fact that her face and her body looked ready to strike. She grabbed my arm like a tourniquet and dragged me over to a pile of bricks. She threw one of them with her stupid precision and hit an old surveillance video camera on the wall of the building behind me. I almost cracked up, knowing that she killed the wrong video camera. But then I remembered my aching arm and bounced back to reality.

She was going to hit me with those bricks.

I had to make my move before she picked up a brick. I moved her hand out of the way and grabbed the hand she had glued to my arm. Then, I dragged her back to the center of the alley.

I was feeling pretty confident about that move.

That was, until Heather sent a blow right at the center of my head. I cursed silently for being so stupid. My head was throbbing and spinning.

But I couldn't let her think that she had actually hurt me. I told myself to _suck it up _and aimed my fist for her stomach.

Then I struck.

It was a pretty good blow, because she doubled over, groaning and cursing four-letter words Grams would have a heart-attack to if I said them in front of her.

The pain in my head felt better after that. But then she punched me, hard into my shoulder. I gritted my teeth, letting out a little shriek and kicked her in the shoulder so that she toppled on the ground.

The pain in my head was really starting to kick in now. I started to feel really weak and my vision got blurry. But I had to keep fighting. Heather would _not _win.

I took advantage of her unfortunate (for her!) position on the ground. I kicked her shin, and she lunged blindly for me in pain. She managed to get a good punch on my thigh, but the toughest part on my body hardly felt a thing.

But my head was feeling something, and it wasn't pretty. Then, a soccer uniform-clad figure stepped in and saved the day.

Carrie was panting, out of breath. "I got here as soon as I could. The soccer meeting met late again." She seemed to notice the brawl between Heather and me.

Heather let go of her death-grip on my leg. "Thank goodness you're here, Carrie. This little freak-face was trying to get stupid revenge on me." She walked over, holding her stomach, to deliver one last punch to my face.

"You touch one more hair on her head, I'm sending all of your "private" stuff to everyone you know. It only takes one push of a button." Carrie held out her $300 phone.

"You hear that, ugly?" Heather sneered into my face. I spat, right onto the center of her face.

"You pig! How dare you!" She lifted up her fist again.

But Carrie managed to butt at the perfect time _again. _"How dare you, Heather, try and blackmail me. You almost about killed _everything _I've worked for in life. You think that I was just going to "magically" be your friend after all the shit you put me through? We you're wrong. W-R-O…" she hesitated, trying to remember the correct spelling. "N-G! So let Sammy go and I won't send to everyone in the 8th grade that you like Jason McDaniel, still wet your bed, and that you are banned from all of In-and-Outs known to man!"

I would've cracked up any other day. But my head still hurt _soooo _much.

I managed to kick her other leg one more time. Heather half-limped, half-ran to Carrie, and whipped Carrie's phone out of her hands all before Carrie and I could even react. She hopped into that same stupid blue convertible she had escaped in the night I fixed things with Casey.

After seeing the car, I had a revelation. A discovery. It was kind of weird, and far-fetched, but if there was the slimmest chance that it was true, Heather would be in deep doggy-doodoo. Maybe this was just something that happens to people when they're on the verge of fainting. Or maybe it was just my screwed-up mind doing its screwy stuff again.

Whatever it was, I couldn't comprehend it long enough. I muttered out nonsense things like "Sheffield" and "breaking the law" and "Officer Borsch!" It wouldn't be until later that I would realize that those words made perfect sense.

Just as I was about to pass out, I heard my name screamed by Carrie, and a male voice far away. I wasn't sure. Everything was blurry. I saw the blue convertible stop. Everything stopped.

And then everything turned black.


	13. How did I get here?

Blackness. I was walking forever in it. Everywhere I looked, it was black.

And then, a streak of fiery orange. Heather's head. She laughed viciously, and then disappeared. I was walking again in total darkness.

Suddenly, everything started to get lighter. I felt warmth around my hand and cloth around my body. A bright, white light shined in my face. This new atmosphere was different from the blackness I had just seen. Everything was white.

Then I realized: hospital.

Now, at first I'm thinking Aw Man! Its kinda of wimpy to end up in the hospital after _your_ revenge.

Isn't it?

My thoughts were blocked at the sight of an angel. Maybe I was in heaven, not the hospital. Maybe I died.

Ok, you may think I was a _little _loopy right at this moment. But you have to consider the fact that I just escaped from unconsciousness. It's confusing. Especially if you find yourself in a place completely different from where you got knocked out.

I finally realized that the angel above me was Casey. And the warmth around my hand was _his_ hand.

But Casey wasn't looking at me. He was talking to someone. Curious, I didn't tighten my hand so that he would still think I was in the blackness and then I could hear his conversation.

"I just feel really… guilty. Like if I was there, I would've been able to stop all of this," Casey said sadly.

"Don't blame yourself, Casey! The doctor says she's going to be ok, good as new," the person responds. Marissa.

"Yeah, man. Be chill. There was nothing you could've done," I was surprised at the other voice. Billy.

"I don't know. She probably won't _ever_ forgive me for not being there," Casey said, tightening his grip on my hand. I wanted to scream _Yes, I will forgive you! Always! _but my mouth and voice had yet to recover.

It was a good thing Marissa was there. "No, Casey, of course not! She _loves _you," she said for me.

Casey doesn't respond. I took this as the moment to make my entrance back to reality.

I tightened my grip around Casey's hand. He looked down on me, smiling.

"Hello, Sleeping Beauty." He grins at my wildly blushing face.

"Casey," I manage to mumble out. "How… how long was I out?" I asked weakly.

"A few hours. But everything's ok now," he assures me.

"Heather… that blue convertible… that guy…she's on… she's-" I stumbled. I felt totally fried.

"Just rest, Sams. It's been a long day for you."

"No. I need… I need to talk to Officer… Borsch,"

"Maybe later. Just focus on recovering first."

"Wha.. what happened?"

"You fainted." Marissa said, just to point out the obvious.

I was too tired to scold her. "After… that."

"Heather limped to the convertible and got in. Carrie, chased after- man that girl is fast when it comes to her phone. But she got it. They got a flat."

"How?"

It was Billy's turn to talk now. "We knew that a convertible was Heather's new ride to school nowadays. Granted, we didn't really know _which _convertible-"

"-so we just popped all of the tires of convertibles down from the school to the alley!" Marissa butted in.

"How did you do that?" I asked. My strength was coming back slowly but surely.

"I stole a pocket knife from the janitor's closet," Billy explained, trying to act cool. He held it out and flipped it real smoothly. Marissa giggled, and Billy leaned over and kissed her right on the lips.

"Whoa. When did this happen?" I asked.

Billy and Marissa were still kissing, so Casey said "Get a room!" The couple walked out, holding hands and snickering. "Apparently you can bond real well when you're popping tires." Casey shrugged.

"I see," I said. But there were more pressing matters to worry about. "What happened to Heather?"

Casey scowled at her name. "She's in the waiting room. Officer Borsch is talking to her right now. She fractured her right leg, sprained her left, stomach aches, and some of the tissue in her shoulder got screwed up. Other than that she's pretty much the same irritating sister."

"Wait a second. Officer Borsch is _here_?" I couldn't believe it. I could turn in Heather, right now.

"You should rest a little before you see him." Casey had a worried look on his face.

"No, I can-" I tried to get up and walk My shoulder seared with pain. There was a bandage wrapped around it. I flopped back on the hospital bed.

"Sams, just rest. Your shoulder is really hurt."

That wasn't the only part. My head was still throbbing. Mildly, but still throbbing.

"I really need to see Officer Borsch. There's some things about Heather I need to tell him. Things that could land her in jail. Do you mind?"

"If you get her in jail? No." He snorted.

"I meant do you mind if I go and talk to him?"

"Oh, that. Actually, he might be talking to that guy who drove the convertible. I think his name is Derek? Last name Sheffield or something."

Gwen Sheffield's brother. I knew stuff about them, too. Bad stuff.

"Ok, I'm going to talk to Officer Borsch." I tried to get out, but my shoulder and my head hurt. A lot. I let out a small cry of pain.

"Sams, please. Let me get him for you," he insisted.

"Wait. What happened to Carrie and Cricket?" I asked.

"Carrie had to go to soccer practice. She called 9-1-1 and left. Cricket is downstairs, helping Officer Borsch."

"Oh. Well can you get Officer Borsch, please? _Just _Officer Borsch?"

"Of course." He kissed me. A long, sweet, passionate kiss. Medicine, surgery, and bandages didn't have anything on the healing power of Casey's kisses.

I lay there, daydreaming and thinking about what happened. After a little while, Casey came in, followed by Officer Borsch.

"I'll let you two talk," Casey said and slipped out.

"Samantha, Samantha. The things you get yourself into," he frowned disapprovingly.

"Sorry." I apologized. "But I have something to tell you. It may shock you, but I'm pretty sure it's true."

**Oooh, cliffhanger! I'm going to try to get the next chapter up late tonight, but in the meantime, REVIEW!**


	14. Officer Borsch Lets a Monster In My Room

**Ok, the next chapter is borderline T-rated because there is a lot of mention of drugs. Also, I have absolutely no experience with drugs whatsoever (thankfully) so I'm sorry if a LOT of the stuff is inaccurate. I thought about doing research, but who wants to research drugs? Not me. So a lot of the stuff is probably not true, but for story purposes, just pretend it is.**

"Alright Sammy. What is it this time?" Officer Borsch looked at me and waited for me to speak.

I took a deep breath. "I think Heather is under the influence of drugs. Marijuana, I think."

"Samantha, that is a strong accusation. What proof do you have of this?"

"Well, a while ago, these guys were smoking marijuana joints on the streets. **(a/n: Chapter 6 has been updated for this to make sense) **I noticed the smell was the same as Heather's breath earlier. **(a/n: Chapter 12 has been updated for this to make sense) **It's also the same smell as the blue convertible that Derek Sheffield was driving. **(a/n: Chapter 7 has been updated for this to make sense) **I know this is a big jump, but I think that the Sheffields are illegally buying and selling marijuana joints."

"Samantha, Heather's breath was perfectly fine when I spoke to her."

"Did she eat anything? Drink?"

"Well, she did ask for a lot of water-"

"-there you go!-"

"-but she said she said all of her injuries made her thirsty and tired. So I gave her water."

"Officer Borsch, not to be disrespectful or anything, but do you think someone could really drink water when they're about to be interrogated. I know if I was to be, I wouldn't be able to focus on anything else _except _the interrogation."

"Hm. Well, the Sheffield boy seemed nice enough. His sister is in your grade, correct?"

"Yes, Gwen Sheffield." Ugh. That evil rumor-spreader.

"You know, you can get in trouble for this. You did hurt the girl."

"But she hurt me, too!" I protested.

"Unless you can get proof that you only fought for self-defense, you're looking at a minimum of a _month _in juvie."

"Juvie? As in jail for kids?" I asked stupidly.

"Look, I don't make the laws. If it turns out that Heather was on drugs, and she _did _attack first, then it's possible that you'll only receive community service."

"We're at a hospital. Why don't you get blood tests of Heather and Derek? I'll see if I can figure out the whole self-defense thing"

"Ok, but only because it's you, Samantha. I'll be right back." He started for the door. "Oh, and your friend Grasshopper-"

"-Cricket-"

"Yeah, her, well she wants to talk to you. She's waiting outside."

"Send her in."

Officer Borsch left my tiny room and Cricket came in. Her hair was messed up and her face looked stressed.

"Sammy! I'm _sooo _sorry! If I hadn't let the cord go up so quickly, all of this wouldn't have happened to you!"

"Cricket, it's not your fault. _I _was the one who was slow. I couldn't get my harness attached on time. If there's anyone to blame, it should be me."

Her facial expression didn't change.

"Hey, look. The whole thing went for the better. I got to rattle Heather's bones a little, damage her shoulder a tad, and give her a stomachache. It's all cool."

"But you got hurt, too."

"This? It's nothing," I lied. My shoulder was still aching, and my head pounded softly. I would recover, but it would take at least a few days. "Besides, without the awesome hat you rented to me, the whole thing would be a bust."

She smiled weakly. "That reminds me. Here's your hat." She pulled it out of her backpack and placed it on the bed.

Realization came swiftly to me. "Cricket, do you think you could have this video to show to Officer Borsch today? Soon?"

"Yeah, I can hook it up to this mini video screen."

"Where's the screen?"

"At home."

"Can you get it for me? Please?" I begged.

"Of course!"

"Within half-an-hour?"

"I'll try, but that means I have to run. My house is pretty far."

"Thank you so much, Cricket! I owe you one!"

"Hey, as long as you forgive me for totally screwing up your revenge."

"Relax, Cricket! It was nothing."

She frowned, but didn't respond. She just left and started to run.

Officer Borsch came back in a few minutes.

"I had the blood test taken, and they're being examined right now. They'll be done in about ten minutes," he informed me.

"Ok, great. And don't worry, I can provide the proof of my self-defense."

"Alright, Samantha. Oh, and Heather would like to talk with you."

"WHAT? TALK? She's gonna kill me!"

"It's fine, Sammy. I'll just stand outside, and if anything goes wrong, just holler. Besides, she's far too injured to cause you any bodily harm."

I was still panicking like crazy inside, but I needed to confirm my suspicions. So I simply just said, "Ok."

Heather wheeled in on a wheelchair. Her face was blank, but I'm sure she was just saving the hard-core glaring until Officer Borsch left the room. She was a sight. One of her legs was wrapped in gauze and the other had a temporary cast on. Her shoulder was bandaged like mine, and she was holding a warm compress to her stomach.

My heart started to beat faster as she wheeled towards me. The heart-rate monitor made jagged lines on the screen. Heather noticed this, and a small smile curled evily across her lips. I couldn't believe that a totally injured, 13 year-old-girl was scaring me half to death.

Her eyes ran over the bandage on my head and on my shoulder. Another wicked smile.

Officer Borsch cleared his voice. "Alright, girls. Be nice. Talk only, and remember that I'm right outside. Be civil." He glanced up and down each of us. "Or as civil as two teenagers can be."

He opened the door, stepped outside and closed it again. My heart was beating like a snare drum. You just had to look at the stupid heart-rate monitor for proof.

Heather looked at me, right in the eye. I winced, and she took this weakness in with open arms.

She opened her mouth to speak.


	15. Apparently, I'm a Prosecutor Now

**Ok, the next chapter has a lot to do with law. I don't know much about criminal justice, but just go along with it, ok?**

I tried to brace myself for the inevitably painful and possibly fatal tounge-lashing this monster was about to give me. But her stiff glare interrupted my attempts.

"I swear Sammy Keyes, one day you are going to _die_. If you think that all of this stuff you did is going to get me into trouble, then you're wrong. My mom's outside in the hospital waiting room and she's hired the best lawyer in all of California. _You're _going to be the one who's going to Juvie, not me. I bet you can't even afford a fucking ride to the courthouse, let alone a fucking lawyer. You're gonna pay for all of this-" she gestured to all of her injuires "-and then some. I guarantee that you're going to wish you never crossed paths with me."

"Acutally, I wished that quite a while ago. Just by _looking_ at you for the first time I wished that."

She huffed and steam appeared to be coming out of her ears, and her face heated up like a hot chili pepper. She looked like a raging bull that was a bout to charge. "Sammy Keyes, don't push me! I have strength like you've never seen." She stared me down with her red eyes.

"Really, Heather? Is that from all of the _marijuana_ you've been inhaling lately?"

She laughed evilly. "Everyone knows that marijuana doesn't strengthen you. It _weakens_ you. And that's why you've got _no _proof." The look on her face was absolutely malicious.

"Yeah? Well I'd bet all of Santa Martina that I have got proof and your punishments will be settled without even having to go to court. And you will pay for _everything _you've done to me, starting with the first day of school."

She glared, breathing roughly. She glanced at the door, where Officer Borsch was talking to a nurse outside. I don't know how on Earth she did, but she managed to step out of the wheelchair, lift up her uninjured arm, and slap me across the face. "Who do you think you are?"

My cheek hurt, more than it had ever hurt when she slapped me. But I managed to croak out steadily. "I'm your worst nightmare."

First, I checked to make sure Officer Borsch wasn't looking anymore. Then, I wobbled out of the bed, grabbed her uninjured arm, and twisted it in an awkwardly painful way that Hudson had taught me as self-defense. I brought my face close to hers, close enough that I could feel a few of her earrings on my hurt cheek. "Leave," I hissed.

I thrust her back into her wheelchair, opened the door, and wheeled her out. When the door was closed, I slid down the side of it, sighing and panting with exhaustion. My head was spinning more than ever, and my cheek was stinging with fury. Quickly enough so that Officer Borsch wouldn't notice that I left my bed, I ineptly slid back in and threw the covers over myself.

Officer Borsch was coming back in, holding papers. Drug-test results.

"Samantha, Heather says that you twisted her arm." He exhaled deeply.

I shrugged. "She slapped me first. Was I supposed to just let it slide?"

"Yes, Samantha, stop making this more complicated that it has to be!"

I sighed. "Did you get the drug-test results?"

"Yes, they're right here. Now, the nurse explained to me that there is a sign of marijuana in their blood streams, but it's a different version and it's unidentifiable."

"Well, there are new types of marijuana coming out. I think this is one that intensifies your strength. Have there been any of those in Santa Martina?"

"Yes. It's a very new marijuana form, and charges can be very high for using it because it's so unknown."

"There you go."

"But I don't have enough proof to lay down on her. Because it's unknown, virtually no charges can be pressed if you don't have enough proof."

"Ok. Here's what you do. Learn about Derek Sheffield. Get a search warrant from the courthouse a few blocks away, and search his house. The evidence you need is the smell of his car and my witness. Persuade the court, do as much as you can, because I can absolutely guarantee that you'll find all the proof you need in their house."

"That's a lot to ask, Samantha."

"I know, but you have to trust me!"

Just then, Cricket barged through the door, gasping with exhaustion.

"I got here as fast as I could. Here's the screen. Let me hook it up for you." She pulled a little chip out of the hat and put it in a little slot of a mini-DVD player.

"What is all of this, girls?" Officer Borsch asked.

"Proof. To clear my name and show that Heather attacked _first_."

Watching the video was horrible. I was a little happy that all of her confession was recorded, but the punching was unbearable. It was like feeling the punching all over again.

"Wow, Samantha, you really do things professional around here."

I managed to smile. "I know."

"I'm going to drive down to the courthouse. In the meantime, someone else wants to talk to you. And don't worry, all charges will be removed. You did punch back, though. So I am going to have to sentence you to 30 hours of community service."

Relief swept throughout my body. 30 hours! That was _nothing_. I didn't have to go to Juvie, and I could help out around town. What a breeze.

Officer Borsch and Cricket left. Grams walked in. At first she was startled by my injuries, but her concern was quickly fogged over by her anger. She thoroughly bit into be with her words, yada, yada, yada and made me promise I wouldn't do anything like that ever again. After she asked this, I just stared at her.

"You're right, Samantha. I can't make you promise that. It's your nature. But please, stay as safe as possible and keep the injuries to a minimum. Now it would be better if you quit all of the snooping altogether…"

"Grams!"

"Ok, alright. The city needs someone like you, I know, I know. You just scare the wits of this old lady sometimes."

Finally, after a while of talking with Grams, Officer Borsch came back inside my room. Grams left silently.

"I got the warrant. Now, are you coming?"

"_Me_? Seriously?"

"Yes, you. The judge allowed me to take the prosecutor with me. You are prosecuting, right?"

"Yeah, sure, as long as I get to come along!"

My head felt much better now, and my shoulder wasn't really going to get in the way. I changed into a fresh pair of clothes Grams had brought with her. I walked right out of those hospital doors, past Marissa and Billy, who were making out in the lobby. Gross.

Then Casey. Oh, Casey.

"Sammy! You're feeling better! Where are you going?"

"Investiagating," I simply responded. Officer Borsch was talking to the same nurse again, so I could talk with Casey for a little bit.

"That's great! Could I come along?"

"Sure, why not?" I kissed him, grabbed his hand, and we walked out, followed by Officer Borsch.

"Who's this?" he asked.

"This is Casey. My boyfriend." Gosh, saying that felt so nice. "Do you mind if he came along?"

"Acutally, I'm not supposed to let anyone else come along…"

"Please? He'll be a big help, and he's really smart."

"Ok, but only because you're Sammy Keyes. Hop in the car, kids."

We got into the backseat and drove to a worn down, clapboard house in a shady neighborhood. The guy who answered the door, Mr. Sheffield, was really resistant to letting us in. But Officer Borsch had experience with this, and he managed to squeeze the three of us in. Mr. Sheffield kept on trying to steer us away from looking around, but Officer Borsch wouldn't tolerate any of it. We searched thoroughly, for quite a while. But nothing came up. I was starting to get worried.

I noticed that Mr. Sheffield was really only trying to protect one part of the house, and it was right under the kitchen floor. I got down on my knees and tapped on each of the boards, until I got to a few hollow-sounding boards in the center. Now, at this time, Mr. Sheffield was trying to grab me off the floor. Officer Borsch pulled him off, and held Mr. Sheffield's arm behind his back. Officer Borsch was looking at me in confusion.

But Casey seemed to see what I was getting at. He helped me remove the boards one by one.

It was dark and spooky below. A little staircase lead down to the secret chamber.

I have to admit it: I was a little creeped out. But I knew I was in the right place because coming from the chamber was a thick, nasty smell that I recognized almost instantly.

I held onto Casey's hand tightly and began my descent down the stairs.


	16. The Strangest Greenhouse I Ever Saw

**Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews! Your support is amazing- it's the stuff that keeps this story going!**

Officer Borsch was still trying to restrain Mr. Sheffield. So, I held Casey's hand and slowly descended down the creaky staircase.

The staircase was surprisingly long, and it made several turns. It was dark on the staircase. I squeezed Casey's hand. My palms were sweating with anticipation.

The staircase ended at a surprisingly big room that had a taller ceiling than I had imagined. Bright lights flashed on plants in the middle. The sides of the room were pitch-dark. Despite those lights, the room was creepy as ever.

I smelled the plants. They smelled _horrible_. Marijuana, I knew at once. There was a small, disgusting worktable on the side.

"Let's split up and look around," I whispered to Casey. He nodded and we began our reconnaissance. I went over to the worktable first. It had those syringes with needle-thin points. The syringes were filled with orange liquid. I picked up a notebook on the desk. I was about to open and read, but something moved in the shadows of the sides of the room.

Some_one_.

"Just who do you think you are?" Gwen Sheffield stepped out, her eyes red. Her hair was messed up and she had a marijuana joint in her fingers. Her makeup was messed up, making her look like some nightmare-ish bride of Frankenstein. Yep, this was the gossip-blogger.

"Hey, Gwen… it's Sammy." I put the book down on the table, carefully, keeping my eyes on her freakish red ones.

"Leave, Sammy," she hissed. Man, this girl was really stoned.

"Ok, I'll leave." I put my hands up. Bad move, because Gwen leaned over and punched me real hard in the stomach-area.

I let out a cry of pain, loud enough for Casey to hear on the other side of the room. He screamed my name and began to run over to me.

I was surprised at how much Gwen's punch hurt. This girl could hardly even get on the pull-up bar in P.E., much less deliver an extremely _painful _punch to my stomach. I tried to get over the pain as I did the same arm-bending thing that I did on Heather. Gwen struggled, and this delivered even more pain to my stomach.

"Help!" I groaned. Casey replaced my hand with his, still holding Gwen's hands behind her back. My stomach really hurt. I tumbled to the ground, gasping from the weight of the wind she knocked out of me. Something sharp pricked my back. I picked it up.

It was a small earring that had a unique orange gem. One that I've only seen on one person in my whole life.

Heather.

"Sammy! Are you alright? Do we need to go back to the hospital?"

"NO! I mean, _noooo_," I tried smoothly. I couldn't leave. I _needed _to get more information. It wasn't all because I wanted Heather to get in jail (but that was a pretty big part of it), but I just wanted to solve the mystery! It's just a natural thing for me. It's like I can't stop until every puzzle piece is in the right place. Psycho, I know, but that's just who I am.

But my stomach _did _hurt a lot. I felt wet coming from my ribs. Blood. I had to scope this place out fast, and then get back to the hospital to rest my achin' bones.

I quickly zippered up my jacket so Casey wouldn't see the blood. I stumbled over to where Casey was still holding Gwen's arms behind her back. I held out the orange gem earring for Casey to see.

"Definitely Heather's. She's been here," he informed me.

Gwen tried to protest, but it came out as a jumble of words and nonsense. Then she threw up, right on the walls. It smelled rank. I walked towards the marijuana plants. Between those two stinks, I couldn't quite tell which one was worse.

Gwen started to remember that she had legs and she began to kick Casey in the shins.

"Dam- I mean dang it!" He cursed. I couldn't help but think _Aww! He's still trying not to swear in front of me even though he's in pain!_

But Gwen was still kicking him so I stumbled over and grabbed her squirming feet. I undid her shoelaces and tied then together, nice and tight. Perfect.

I looked around some more, and came up upon a table of packages of gum. I picked one up off the table. It was ordinary Wrigley's gum, but it had been glued shut. There were dozens more on the table. I stuffed one in my pocket along with Heather's earring.

Somehow Casey and I managed to bring the squirming Gwen up the stairs. When we got up there, I told Officer Borsch all about the marijuana plants. He put Mr. Sheffield in handcuffs and brought him down the staircase with him and examined the "basement".

Gwen kept on trying to say stuff, but she was too stoned to get out any real sentences. I looked at the glue on the gum package before we left the house. I tried prying it open, but dang! that glue was strong. I don't know why I was trying, I already knew what was in there. But my psycho mystery-solving instincts were taking over again. So I looked at the glue. It had an orange tinge, and it was thick.

When we stepped outside, I noticed the fountain on the very side of the street, still on the Sheffield's property. It had a blue tinge. At this point, I was thinking to myself, why would anyone purposely dye a fountain blue? They would only do it if-

It had a purpose.

And then I remembered that blue was the counter-color to orange. I was getting real excited now. I dunked the whole package of gum in the fountain, not caring that my shirt and sweater was getting wet with the suspicious liquid.

Besides, the package was open now, and just as I had suspected, marijuana joints neatly lined the inside. My ribs were really starting to hurt now, so I hopped in the car and read the label on the way.

It read:

_These cigs guarantee increased strength, without the side-effects of normal marijuana. _

Simple. But I knew it didn't reveal that it also guaranteed increased aggression and red-eyes. At least I was sure increased aggression was part of it. How could tiny, petite Gwen Sheffield, the girl who complained about the exertion of energy by just walking across campus, deliver a _bleeding_ blow to my stomach? And how could Heather knock me out cold when last year all she managed to do was gouge me with her nails?

All I knew was those joints were scary stuff. Images of Gwen barfing all over herself and her stumbling over words was enough to give me nightmares.

I showed Officer Borsch all of the evidence, and he was thoroughly impressed by what I managed to uncover. Heather was waiting on the side, glaring at me the whole time. Just as I was about to walk over to Officer Borsch to shake his hand, Heather casually put her foot out.

I felt so stupid. How could I not see her big, fat foot in the way? I guess the pain in my ribs was really starting to get to me, because I stumbled to the floor. My ribs were crushed, and searing pain raced through my body. I yelped, and unzippered my jacket.

What a sight. My shirt was blood stained in light patches of red. I touched my ribs as lightly as possible, but the pain still sliced my body. Casey ran over, and Officer Borsch screamed for the nurse. I was vaguely aware of stupid Heather laughing her head off to the side. She thought it was so freaking hilarious.

"Sammy, who did this to you?" Casey asked urgently.

The sting of my pain was crushing my voice. "Gw…Gwen." Gwen did not hear, she was zonked out in one of the hospital beds.

Casey swooped me up bride-style. Except this was no wedding. It was a serious emergency, with serious wounds. The nurses rushed over, insisting to put me on a rolling hospital bed. My eyelids suddenly became too heavy for my eyes to keep open. The fluttered closed. I heard Marissa shrieking, Billy trying to calm her down, and Grams crying my name out. Probably holding her chest. Cricket was somewhere in the mess.

Casey insisted on carrying me to the room. Despite all of the chaos, my heart couldn't help but fly. Stupid heart! It was supposed to be fixing my burning ribs, not swooning at an incredibly cute and brave boy!

I finally got to the room, and lay down. A nurse came in and checked everything. She left, and that left Marissa, Billy and Casey.

"Sleep now. You were so brave today," Casey muttered. I was vaguely aware of this. He placed one sweet, but short kiss on my lips. My eyes closed softly and I escaped into dreamland. I tried to stay awake, but the pain of my ribs was like a barrier keeping me from reality.

So I drifted off to sleep.

But I couldn't get Heather's laughing out of my mind. Laughing! At someone's _pain_.

Now, granted, I was her mortal enemy. But only truly wicked people can laugh at blood and shrieks of agony.

Justice would be served when I woke up.


	17. Guess Who Goes To Juvie?

I woke up early the next morning, at around 6 a.m. Casey was fast asleep on the couch in my little hospital room.

"Case?" I whispered softly.

He woke up with a start. "Oh, hey Sammy. Sleep well?"

"Me? What about you? Don't you need to brush your teeth, shower, whatnot? And how can you stand sleeping on that couch?" I thought it was silly the second it came out of my mouth. _I've_ been sleeping on a couch for almost two years now. But as far as couches go, the one Casey was sleeping on was _pretty _bad. Like he might as well have been sleeping on a rock.

"Nah, it's ok. I stopped by home for a bit. I got back as soon as I could." He shrugged.

"You're too nice."

"I know, right? I'm like Mr. Nice." He flashed me a toothy grin.

"So… what happened to me?"

"Two of your ribs have hairline fractures. Other than that, the doctor says the damage was pretty minimal."

"Why does this feel like déjà vu?"

"Because you're a little troublemaker."

"I know, right? I'm like Mrs. Troublemaker."

"_Ms. _Troublemaker."

"Yes, that's right. I'm not married… yet."

Casey looked at his feet. "It's a little early for that. Besides, before you get married, you want to make sure that you want to be in it for life. You know, someone who you could watch your grandchildren run around you with." His face flushed red. I fingered my key necklace, trying to avoid the awkward moment.

"Sorry. That was kind of weird."

"It's ok. I agree. I mean, I agree with the whole grandchildren thing. Not the weird thing."

He wrung his hands. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why do you stick with me?"

"What do you mean?" I asked nervously.

"I mean, why do you still go out with me when there are way better guys out there?"

"WHAT? What are you talking about? You're like the most perfect guy I have ever met!" I exclaimed incredulously.

"I could hardly protect you two times. I screw up, and I can't stop my own sister from messing with you. Even being with me is making you a better target to Heather. So, why?"

"Casey, every night I ask myself why a guy like you would want to go out with me. I'm like a magnet for danger, I'm a fugitive from the law, and I get pretty crazy and reckless a _lot._ No other guy out there would've been able to protect me from all of these injuries, much less stay with me and ever be as concerned as you have been. I couldn't have asked for anything better."

He walked over and held my hand. "So, you forgive me? For being an idiot?" He stared deep into my eyes with those deep brown hues that would put Ghirardelli to shame.

"Casey, if anyone was an idiot, it was me. Seriously, I deserve the next International Idiocy Award."

"Nominations are next month."

"The competition will probably be so bad that they'll name me International Idiot right on the spot."

"Probably." He grinned. I laughed.

He left to go get some breakfast, and by the time he came back, he had a tray full of morning-meal goodies for him and me to share.

Time had gone by so fast that I hadn't realized that it was already Saturday. I was glad that it had been a teacher work day Friday. Make-up work sucked, especially since I'm a professional procrastinator.

We laughed all the way through breakfast, and after. At around 10, there was a knock on the door.

Carrie Stevens stepped through the door, still clutching her cell phone in her hand. She had soccer gear on, again. Today was game day.

"You will not believe what I just did," she gushed. "Whoa, what happened to you?" She asked, staring at the bandages around my ribcage.

"I got pounded by a Gwen and tripped by a Heather." Casey winced.

"Ooo, that sucks! Happened to me in soccer dozens of times. Whoa, off topic! What I wanted to say is that I got my personal revenge on the queen of mean!"

"What did you do?"

"Well, I was on my way to the hospital to visit you when I saw the Sheffield's house. I tried knocking, but no one answered. So I crept around back and the door was open! I got onto Gwen's computer and wrote a blog! For her! And guess what it said!"

"I have absolutely no idea."

"Read! She took out her cell phone and handed it to me."

_Hello people of SMUS. Heather Acosta wets her bed sometimes and she has a crush on Jason McDaniel! Just FYI._

"Wow, way to be blasé about it," I said sarcastically.

"I know, isn't it great!"

"It is actually very clever."

But Casey was frowning. "I sort of wish that you hadn't put the last name in there."

"Oh, that's ok! I can change it right now!"

"How?" he asked.

"I stole Gwen's password into her blog!"

I rolled my eyes. Might was well let Carrie have her fun. She deserved it, after all of the agonizing torture she went through by pretending to be Heather's friend.

"Although I wonder why Gwen's family wasn't at home. It is fairly early." Her face twisted up the way it did when she was doing math problems. In other words, a hopelessly confused face.

"Oh, it's nothing. They're just in jail," I informed her.

"Really?" Her tone turned serious. "Why?"

I didn't know the answer to this, but evidently Casey did. "Extremely illegal weed dealings. They're all in rehab. Gwen's in juvie for two years and Mr. Sheffield and Gwen's brother, Derek are in the Santa Martina County Jail right now."

"Hmm. That makes sense. I always thought it was weird how a lot of gangsters would walk by their house."

"How do you know this?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, Gwen's house is on the way from my house to the soccer complex."

"Right."

The tone in Carrie's voice turned from being serious to way too peppy again. "Well, speaking of soccer, gotta go to practice! Get well!" She dashed off.

Officer Borsch made his entrance as soon as Carrie dashed out. Guess who was with him?

Heather, of course. And her freakish mom was tailing them.

The weird party entered. Heather's mom glared at Casey as soon as she walked in.

"Hey mom," Casey said glumly.

"Shut up, you disgrace of a son." She slapped him across the face. Slapping must run in the family through the women or something.

Casey looked like he wanted to slap her back. But he just walked over to me and held my hand.

Officer Borsch, of course was completely oblivious to this. "Heather has something to say to you as well as I would like to officially state both of your sentences with the two of you together."

I gulped. Here it was. The time to see if all of the bleeding and planning and snooping was worth it.

Officer Borsch cleared his throat loudly. "Samantha Keyes, you are sentenced to 30 hours of community service." My heart was still beating wildly, even at the relief of my minimal sentence.

"Heather Acosta," he began. Heather's mom was sobbing fake tears on the couch. Heather was giving me looks that would give young children nightmares. "You are sentenced to 7 sessions of drug rehab. You are to attend school on a regular basis at your current school, which I believe is Santa Martina Upper School. On weekends, you will return to your regular home, but on weekdays, you will reside in juvenile prison. This arrangement will last for 3 years."

It was perfect! Of course I had to deal with Heather at school… and on weekends… so maybe it wasn't so perfect. But 3 years of juvie on her permanent record? All of the bleeding and planning and snooping was finally worth it.

Unfortunately, Officer Borsch made an unwise decision to leave Heather and her mom alone in the room with Casey and I. Heather's mother took this opportunity to slap me once, and then Casey another time. I stood there, unfazed. I wasn't the one going to juvie.

But I couldn't resist doing _something,_ even if it was small.

"Enjoy juvie, Heather," I whispered as she trailed her mother out the door. She glared one last time and slapped me for what was it? Like the fifth time? My skin must have been used to it already, because I could hardly feel it. But I smiled innocently and waggled my fingers in goodbye.

Marissa and Billy ended up visiting one last time before the hospital released me on Sunday. We had a mini-party late at night. Of course, I had to stay in the hospital bed, but it was fun nevertheless. The radio was blasted (but not loud enough for the nurses outside to hear), and Billy brought an "assortment of crunchy cheese products". In other words, a whole lot of chips. It was great.

I didn't know what Heather would do to me on Monday. I didn't even know what she would possibly do to me tomorrow. All I knew was that I was living in the moment, with friends I could count on, a boyfriend I loved to death, and a hopeful wish for a bright tomorrow.

**So, sorry about the weird sentence Heather had to face. I wanted to make it flexible enough so that if I decide to make a sequel, it would still be good. What do you guys think about me making a sequel?**

**I decided that I am going to write an epilogue, so the story's not quite finished yet! Stay tuned and REVIEW!**


	18. Epilogue

**Ok, here it is… The Final Chapter! I've had so much fun writing this story and I hope you have had as much fun reading it!**

So things returned back to normal… well, as normal as things can be in my crazy life.

Heather still goes to school, like her sentence said. Of course she still harasses me. Same old, same old. But you know what? I'm ok with that because she _knows_ I totally owned her. I know she's going to retaliate one day, but in the meantime, I'm just going to chill and wait.

It turns out there was no need to post Heather's video confession to all of the horrible things she did, because after word spread that she got into juvie, well, just Casey and I denying the rumors was enough to convince the kids at school that Heather had been a snake after all.

Cricket told me that her brother ended up posting the video to YouTube and it got 2,000,000 million hits in the first week. The title? "Psycho Juvenile Delinquent On Weed."

Carrie made it into the Junior Women's National Soccer Team after all. She eventually thanked me, but of course the thanks came through a text message.

Marissa and Billy are still going strong. Unfortunately, though, the roles were reversed and Casey and I were the ones telling them to keep the PDA to a minimum. Marissa told me that for the first time in who-knows-how-long, Danny tried to hit on her. But Marissa was totally over him by them.

And Casey. _My _Casey. So our relationship is not as easy as most.

But that's what keeps it fun.

All of the psycho Heather-ness, all our parents dating thing, _everything_. I'm grateful for it all. It brought us closer. It shows us that even though things may get rough, we learn to stick together with our heads held high.

So maybe the revenge was a little overblown. Maybe I went too far.

But me getting revenge was inevitable.

The surprising results were not.

I've learned to like the things that were inevitable, but love the things that were not.

Because while the inevitable things give life the shades of black and white, the unexpected things are what really make life a kaleidoscope of color.

If that's true, then my life so far is the biggest explosion of color known to mankind.

And I'm loving every second of it.

**So the ending was a little cheesy, but it works! Thank you everyone for all of the reviews! They were so much fun to read and the motivation was amazing. I would like to personally thank N3WYORKANG3L for reviewing to almost every chapter that was posted! **

**I will probably make a sequel to this, but I'm going on vacation in a week, for two weeks. So two weeks will definitely give me a lot of time to think about an awesome idea to share with you guys. With the week I have left, I will probably write a few oneshots possibly in Sammy Keyes, but I have a great idea for one for the Gallagher Girls Series, so I'll probably do that first. Look out for those!**

**Bee**


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